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For my money, Dean Cain looks the least like Superman. Superman should always have that all-American look to him, and Cain always looked too Hawaiian for me to buy him as the Man of Steel (Liked his Clark a lot, though!)

Dean Cain was born in Michigan and grew up in Malibu. His birth father was a half-Japanese man who served in the US Army. Otherwise, his ancestry is primarily Welsh, with some Irish and French Canadian thrown in.

Didn't mean to imply that he was actually Hawaiian, just saying that that was how he looked to me.

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"All right, you ignorant savages, get a load of Aquezio, you heathen monkeys!" - Race Bannon, Pursuit of the Po-Ho

Well, literal-minded sort that I am, I'm confused how "all-American" doesn't include Hawaii (so long as it's post-1959). Isn't that a contradiction in terms?

Only if you're taking the term absolutely literally.

Or if you think of America as an entity defined by its mix of heritages, so that if anything people of mixed heritage are more "all-American" than those of a single heritage.

All I meant was that Dean Cain's mixed heritage shows in his face. Consequently, he doesn't look like Superman to me.

Well, since Superman is, you know, from another planet, I don't think he should absolutely have to look Caucasian. Heck, it's enough of a stretch that he can even pass as human.

Though like I said, I never noticed that Cain was "ethnic" in appearance; even now, knowing that he's a quarter Japanese, I can barely see it. That sort of thing just doesn't stand out for me the way it does for some people. In retrospect, though, I like the idea of Superman having a subtly exotic appearance, something that doesn't exactly match any single human ethnic group. It's more universal that way.

I'll be the first person to vote for Gerard Christopher (Superboy, 1989-1992) - never heard of the guy, but going strictly on looks, he's got a slightly exotic look that synchs well with the idea that Supes is, after all, an alien. Dean Cain and Tom Welling also come close.

I think of Supes as looking clean-cut, not "all American" as a euphemism for Anglo. He's an alien!!!

I'd be fine with Superman having a more exotic appearance if we didn't have 70+ years of comics showing the contrary.

Comic characters are vague enough that we can all fill in the details we like. To me, Supes is an alien and he should look it, at least a little bit. Cain may look too exotic, Welling too little, so I went with Christopher.

Please, it really depends on what you identify Supes as. For the modern age (80's plus) Supes is portrayed as extremely well built. Chris Reeve while a good looking man, with a nice frame isn't defined to any real degree. He really doesn't look that much like the Superman of his day (body wise)

While going back to the 30-50's Superman had a body shape that Reeve's doesn't even come close to, as its far more bulky (though not heavily defined at all). And George really came very close to that body shape.

So I could never say Chris Reeve really fit the look of Superman for his time.

Agreed. I was twelve when the first movie came out and I remember thinking then "this guy doesn't look ANYTHING like Superman!" I still feel that way today. In fact I will not buy any of the Superman comics where he looks like Reeves until the other 40 year old fanboys get off their annoying nostalgia trip and start drawing him right again.

None of those guys look like Superman, and the only guy who might've come close for me would'a been Bruce Campell in his prime. Although his voice isn't very "superman" to me.

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Well, literal-minded sort that I am, I'm confused how "all-American" doesn't include Hawaii (so long as it's post-1959). Isn't that a contradiction in terms?

Only if you're taking the term absolutely literally.

Or if you think of America as an entity defined by its mix of heritages, so that if anything people of mixed heritage are more "all-American" than those of a single heritage.

All I meant was that Dean Cain's mixed heritage shows in his face. Consequently, he doesn't look like Superman to me.

Well, since Superman is, you know, from another planet, I don't think he should absolutely have to look Caucasian. Heck, it's enough of a stretch that he can even pass as human.

Though like I said, I never noticed that Cain was "ethnic" in appearance; even now, knowing that he's a quarter Japanese, I can barely see it. That sort of thing just doesn't stand out for me the way it does for some people. In retrospect, though, I like the idea of Superman having a subtly exotic appearance, something that doesn't exactly match any single human ethnic group. It's more universal that way.

I'm not sure but I think the term "All-American" comes from sports and refers to a high school or college team or something.

So usually when it's used I get an image of a guy from the 50s with a letterman jacket on. And yes, he's a white guy.

Does that then lead to the conclusion that I don't think Hawaiians or other ethnicities are Americans would be putting the cart in front of the horse. When you think about it I don't think of a woman either when I hear "All-American".

I'd be fine with Superman having a more exotic appearance if we didn't have 70+ years of comics showing the contrary.

There are decades of comics showing Wolverine as 5'3" and extremely hirsute, but people seem to accept Hugh Jackman in the role. And did Michael Keaton look even remotely like Bruce Wayne? The guy's only 5'9" and needed plastic muscles to compensate for his lack of real ones.

A TV show or movie is a different reality from the comics, so there's no reason not to change things. Each adaptation has made numerous changes from the comics. They've offered widely varying interpretations of the backstory, the character relationships, the appearance of Krypton, the appearance of the Fortress of Solitude, etc. Lois and Clark was already a highly revisionist show in a lot of ways -- downplaying the superheroics in favor of romantic comedy, redefining Lex Luthor as a handsome, curly-haired romantic interest for Lois, turning Perry White into an Elvis fanatic, having no Fortress of Solitude (except as Clark's childhood treehouse), etc. So why be bothered that they did something else different from what the comics did?

I'd be fine with Superman having a more exotic appearance if we didn't have 70+ years of comics showing the contrary.

There are decades of comics showing Wolverine as 5'3" and extremely hirsute, but people seem to accept Hugh Jackman in the role. And did Michael Keaton look even remotely like Bruce Wayne? The guy's only 5'9" and needed plastic muscles to compensate for his lack of real ones.

A TV show or movie is a different reality from the comics, so there's no reason not to change things. Each adaptation has made numerous changes from the comics. They've offered widely varying interpretations of the backstory, the character relationships, the appearance of Krypton, the appearance of the Fortress of Solitude, etc. Lois and Clark was already a highly revisionist show in a lot of ways -- downplaying the superheroics in favor of romantic comedy, redefining Lex Luthor as a handsome, curly-haired romantic interest for Lois, turning Perry White into an Elvis fanatic, having no Fortress of Solitude (except as Clark's childhood treehouse), etc. So why be bothered that they did something else different from what the comics did?

First, Wolverine is nowhere near as popular as Superman, so not many people outside of comic circles knows that he's 'supposed' to be short.
Also, just because Michael Keaton played Batman doesn't mean everybody liked him as Batman/Wayne or thought he was the best choice.
Same with Dean Cain and the fact that Lois & Clark was trying to steer away from the Superman stuff and aim for the romantic aspect. I never watched it and I don't think it was high in the ratings.

There are decades of comics showing Wolverine as 5'3" and extremely hirsute, but people seem to accept Hugh Jackman in the role. And did Michael Keaton look even remotely like Bruce Wayne? The guy's only 5'9" and needed plastic muscles to compensate for his lack of real ones.

Well, from a purely physical standpoint, those guys were miscast. That's not to say that they both didn't do a good job with what they were given, though. Heck, I loved Jackman in the first X-Men movie, but I still thought it was hysterical that Professor X had a hairier chest than him.

Christopher wrote:

A TV show or movie is a different reality from the comics, so there's no reason not to change things.

Depends what you're changing. For me, if they get the BIG stuff right (general appearance, characterization, motivation, general details of the origin, etc), I try not to sweat the details.

Christopher wrote:

Lois and Clark was already a highly revisionist show in a lot of ways -- downplaying the superheroics in favor of romantic comedy, redefining Lex Luthor as a handsome, curly-haired romantic interest for Lois, turning Perry White into an Elvis fanatic, having no Fortress of Solitude (except as Clark's childhood treehouse), etc. So why be bothered that they did something else different from what the comics did?

Lois and Clark always bugged me because it seemed generally distainful of the characters & seemed to go to great lengths to mock them at any opportunity. So it was a failure of an adaptation in my book. YMMV, of course.

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"All right, you ignorant savages, get a load of Aquezio, you heathen monkeys!" - Race Bannon, Pursuit of the Po-Ho